T-206 Honus Wagner

[DixieBaseball]

I always cringe when I see the media or anyone describe the T206 Wagner as rare. (I know this board has debated the term "rare" and there is a wide variance of opinion) With around 70 or so Wagners, I can only see this card as some what scarce. The Wagner is probably the most over hyped card in the history of collecting and in my humble opinion is grossly overvalued. There are a few Wag's I would much rather own than the T206. I am not a hater of this card, but just have never understood the fascination and would much rather take a quarter million+ and buy some trully rare pre-war stuff! The card sort of took on a life of its own decades ago and has been climbing the staircase ever sense. Do I like this card ? Sure. Does it excite me ? Absolutely not. (To each his own...)

[Fred]

I'm just going to toss it out there... the holy grail could have come from the 19th century.

[Bilko G]

He would way below Cobb in value if he hadn't had the T206. I don't think the Babe BN would be "The Baseball card", as its just to rare and obscure. How many non collector know of the Baltimore News? Not many. A Ton of non collectors know about the T206 Wagner, hell it even made its way into pop culture.

[M's_Fan]

Originally Posted by NashvilleBaseball

I always cringe when I see the media or anyone describe the T206 Wagner as rare. (I know this board has debated the term "rare" and there is a wide variance of opinion) With around 70 or so Wagners, I can only see this card as some what scarce. The Wagner is probably the most over hyped card in the history of collecting and in my humble opinion is grossly overvalued. There are a few Wag's I would much rather own than the T206. I am not a hater of this card, but just have never understood the fascination and would much rather take a quarter million+ and buy some truly rare pre-war stuff! The card sort of took on a life of its own decades ago and has been climbing the staircase ever sense. Do I like this card ? Sure. Does it excite me ? Absolutely not. (To each his own...)

The T206 Wag is so popular and expensive simply because the T206 set is so tremendously popular. You can't forget about demand and just think about supply, its half the equation. And the T206 set is popular in part because its cards are widely available.

And in my opinion it is very correct for the media to say the card is rare. They are writing to communicate with non-collectors, and the word rare absolutely conveys the proper meaning to 99.99999999999% of the public, which would, for example, classify any card with under a thousand copies as "rare."

[E93]

So the T206 Wagner is not the rarest card in the hobby. So what? I don't collect stamps or coins, but I would guess the holy grails of those hobbies are not the rarest coins or stamps either.

The reasons the Wagner is, and always has been the holy grail of the hobby are many (most popular pre-war set, arguably the best player ever, great story explaining its rarity, by now it is a part of American mythology/history - many Americans know of it, etc.)and scarcity is only one of those factors. Does it have any competition for its position as the holy grail of the hobby? No. Will it in the foreseeable future, if ever? No.

The question is an interesting one, but the lack of a clear runner up only underscores the status of the Wagner.

There are a number of cards that would vie for the position if the T206 Wagner did not exist. To me, some of the possibilities are: N172 Anson in uniform, Just So Kelly, Just So Cy Young, T206 Plank, T210 Joe Jackson, Baltimore News Ruth, 1933 Goudey Lajoie, and '52 Topps Mantle come to mind immediately. The first three are probably too rare to ever achieve holy grail status. I think a card needs to have enough examples out there to at least be a possibility - to be somewhat attainable. Cards with only one, two or four known examples, all tucked away in old collections don't circulate enough to be on most collector's radars. The holy grail must be widely known. It must be rare, but not too rare.

JimB